Robo-Rally

Playing Robo-Rally.

Twonky

Robo-Rally is a board game by Wizards of the Coast, and distributed by Garfield Games.

The goal of the game is to manuever your robot around the game board, touching each of the "flags" in the board, in proper order, before the other robots do the same. The playing surface is any combination of 6 square panels, each of which has a devious arrangment of moving conveyor belts, rotating gears, pushing bars, crushing devices, cutting lasers and bottomless pits.

The game has high appeal for people with a programmers mindset, because at the beginning of each turn you are given a limited number of movement cards, from which you must choose 5. You then lay these out in a "programmed" sequence. The turn is then executed, and your robot follows its program with mindless abandon. Missprogram your metalic servant and it will blissfully plummet to its doom.

Zoom Bot

Part of the fun of this game is how quickly even the best laid programs fall into ruin. Even if your program would have worked perfectly, another robot may accidentaly, (or maybe on purpose) bump your 'bot out of position, leaving your perfect program at the mercy of the playing boards elements.

From a gaming point of view, Robo-Rally is impressive because its rules seem to cover EVERYTHING that can happen. The first few times we played we thought there were some gaps in the rules, but over time we have found that each gap was an oversight in our reading of the rulebook.

One problem with the game is that a player in a tough position may take a REALLY long time to plan his/her program, leaving the other players twiddling their thumbs. A solution The League Of Mad Scientists applies is using a timer during the programming phase of play. New players should have no limit, experienced players can usually make due with 2 minutes, and 30 seconds results in near chaos.

Twitch

The images of Twonky, Zoom Bot and Twitch are figurines that come with the game. They come as bare diecast metal, but I painted them to add character. The names are those provided by the game. All robots have the same operating characteristics, they just look different.